Worcester Hurling Club starting to achieve success

Monday

Jul 22, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Jackson Alexander SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

As the sun began to set on a muggy Tuesday evening, the members of the Worcester Hurling Club trudged off their practice field at Lake Park, hands on hips, exhausted from one of coach Francis Maloney’s rigorous practices.

The 7 p.m. practice began with a brief warm-up, akin to playing catch in baseball. Practice ended at 8:30 after the team went through a 30-minute scrimmage. In between there were about 45 minutes of drills in which the 16 Worcester hurlers completed a variety of grueling sprinting exercises.

“At the beginning of the season, we all would have been throwing up,” said captain Patrick Heffernan, noting that no vomiting occurred during this practice.

The team’s acclimation to the demanding practices orchestrated by Maloney is just another example of how far the Worcester Hurling Club has come since its inaugural season in the summer of 2010.

On Aug. 24, the players will have the opportunity to prove that more than just their conditioning has improved, when they will compete in their first Northeast Region Junior C Hurling Championship in Canton.

“To the club it means an awful lot, because the lads have put so much into this year, not saying that they haven’t done it every year, but their hurling has come on this year, it’s unbelievable,” Maloney said.

Hurling, according to Maloney, is “the fastest sport on ground,” and “like a cross between field hockey and lacrosse,” although it combines elements of baseball, rugby and golf as well. It also has a rich Irish history, with its origins dating back as many as 2,000 years.

“The thing that’s great about hurling is that so many sports take facets from it,” Jake Akremi said.

In order to accumulate points, a hurler must strike the sliotar, the ball, with the hurley, the stick, either above or into a goal that resembles a soccer net with the goal posts extended into the air. One point is awarded for hitting the ball over the net, and three points are awarded for hitting the ball into the net, which is guarded by a goalie.

“It’s a beautiful game to play, hurling,” Heffernan said. “It’s kind of like people who play hockey into their 50s, and you don’t know why they play. I got down to Marlboro and see them play and think ‘Why are they out there? What’s in it for them?’ But it’s just so much fun being out there.”

The club began in 2010, when a cast of Massachusetts natives — most prominently Worcester’s Dan Donahue — who had spent time in Ireland decided they wanted to bring one of the Irish’s most popular sports to Worcester.

The project was not an instant success for Worcester as it struggled both on the playing field and in the recruitment of talent.

“We started off just playing eight kids on a field,” assistant captain Dan Sweatland said. “So in only three years, coming this far is huge.”

Last season, Worcester competed in the Junior C league for the first time and finished at 3-3.

“Last year we had a bad year,” said Sweatland, who lives in Clinton. “Some practices we only had six people. This year we haven’t had less than 16.”

While Worcester struggled to achieve success and even field a team in its first three years, it has improved in both areas this year.

The roster of 28 men — the oldest 52, the youngest 19 — features a heavy Massachusetts contingent mixed with a few Irish.

“I’ve been really impressed with these kids who have never played before,” said Heffernan, who came to Boston from Tipperary, Ireland, in 1994. “They love it, they take it up, and they want to play all the time and that to me is way more impressive than me wanting to play because the love of the game was bred into me.”

Perhaps the most important change was having Maloney as coach this year. Worcester plucked the native of Clare, Ireland, from a Boston hurling club.

“He’s a fantastic coach, he’s been coaching for some time now and he’s been putting us through the rigors, training us pretty hard,” Heffernan said.

In just one year, Maloney has turned a hapless team into a powerhouse. Worcester has a 4-1-1 record, which includes a win and a tie against Concord, last year’s National Hurling champion. Their only loss came in a tightly contested match with Portland. Worcester swept Hartford this year, the third team in Junior C.

With its tie against Concord on June 22, Worcester clinched first place in the league, guaranteeing a spot in the Northeast Junior C championship game. The tie also meant a first time qualification for the National Hurling tournament in Cleveland on Labor Day weekend.

“I think it’s a dream come true that we’ve got this far. I think a lot of the guys didn’t think we could do it,” Maloney said. “Now that we’re here they really believe that we can do it.”

With Hartford doomed to finish last, Concord and Portland will battle for second place and the right to play Worcester in the championship game on Aug. 24. Portland currently sits in second place with six points, three ahead of Concord. Two of Concord’s final three games come against Portland, however.

Worcester, which is sponsored by Galway Bay Irish Pub, also features a youth league primarily run by team president Aidan O’Shea.

“That’s great to see, because the future of the game is with those kids,” Heffernan said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the club, but if people keep showing up, we’ll keep doing it every year.”